A man found hanged in a cemetery next to St Christopher's High School this morning has been named as Luke Young.

The 35-year-old was discovered at around 7am at Dill Hall Lane Cemetery near to his father's grave and was visible to passing pupils, staff and parents.

Police treated the finding of Mr Young's body, who is from the Norfolk area, as a potential crime scene and it wasn't moved until around 10am.

Headmaster of St Christopher's CE High Alasdair Coates says it was inevitable pupils saw the incident and has offered councilling sessions to those affected by the tragedy.

Mr Coates said: "School is going ahead as usual today. Police have attended a distressing incident in the graveyard bordering our school, but we acted swiftly to ensure that there was no possibility of pupils seeing the scene either from classrooms or the outdoor areas.

"Despite our efforts, many pupils will inevitably have seen the incident either from school buses or as they approached on foot. We posted teachers along the route to reassure pupils.

"We intend to keep things as normal as possible in school today. Our own counselling service will be on hand and we will work with the county council's Critical Incident Support Unit to ensure that any pupils who are distressed receive the support they need," he added.

Detective Inspector Claire Holbrook, of Accrington CID, said: "We are not treating it as suspicious. It's obviously a very tragic loss of a 35-year-old's life. I can confirm he was hanging from a tree in a churchyard very close to his father's grave roughly a year since his father had died."